When Dale Breitlow and Sue DeLain were homecoming king and queen at Casco High School in 1946, they looked forward to a bright future.

Breitlow grew up on a farm in Rio Creek with the farm’s name, “The Breitlow Overflowing Well Dairy Farm” painted on the silo. Sue DeLain was raised with a dozen brothers and sisters in the small town of Euren. Breitlow studied education at Wisconsin State (now the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh), and DeLain attended Bellin School of Nursing (now Bellin College) in Green Bay. After college, they were married.

They were raising their two sons in Wauwatosa, where Breitlow was associate principal at Wauwatosa West High School. An affable, outgoing man who loved the Green Bay Packers and the Milwaukee Brewers, Breitlow was shot and killed in a school hallway in 1993 by a former student in one of the nation’s first school shootings.

His son, Jay, who was a freshman at Wauwatosa West at the time of the shooting, recently wrote a book about the shooting that proposes some comprehensive solutions to the problems of gun violence.

In the book, “Love, Not Guns: A Case for Changing the Focus of American’s Gun Debate,” Breitlow, currently a Colorado chiropractor, looks at the benefits of enhanced mental health care and more supportive home, community and school environments to help prevent future gun violence. The book also describes his Wisconsin boyhood as the family moved from Cambridge to Montello to Wauwatosa and the painful years for his family after his father’s death.

Breitlow said that his own marriage and the birth of his daughter inspired him to write the book.

“I wanted to create a better world for her,” Breitlow said. “One of the things we have to do is look at people who are acting out and ask if this is a cry for love.”

Breitlow said his father’s murderer, Leonard McDowell, sent many red flags before he shot Dale Breitlow. Steps could have been taken to prevent the tragedy if the community had the programs in place to assist McDowell, he says. McDowell received a life sentence for the crime and is still in prison.

In his book, Breitlow said his grandfather Elmer Breitlow never recovered from the tragedy of his son’s death before he passed away in 1995. He said that he is frequently back in Kewaunee County to visit his relatives, including his grandmother, Betty DeLain, who is now in her 80s. His mother recently retired from her nursing job in Madison.

“Everybody has been extremely positive about the book,” he said. “I hope it will show how love can heal many of the problems in our society today.”

“Love, Not Guns” is published by M&B Global Solutions of Green Bay and is available at Amy’s Coffee House in Kewaunee or in digital or paperback formats at Amazon.com.